Anita Solanki, 26, grew up watching rocket ships soar across the sky. She could see the shuttle launches taking place at Kennedy Space Center nearly 125 miles away from the backyard of her family’s home in Tampa, Florida.

She remembers the yellow-orange burn of the engine and the thin trail of smoke it left behind as the rocket ascended, climbing higher and higher into space. On clear days, the smoke trail sometimes lasted as much as 10 minutes after the shuttle disappeared into deep blue.

“You see that shuttle launch and everything just gets super happy, super excited,” Solanki said. “I could not stop jumping up and down because it was right from my backyard and I could just watch it.”

From that point, Solanki fell in love with space travel and she dreamed of becoming an astronaut. She loved math and science as a kid, and with her father being an engineer, she naturally gravitated toward the field herself.

Now, Solanki is the lead hydrogen test engineer for XCOR Aerospace, which develops rocket-propelled spacecraft and aircraft, rocket propulsion systems and propulsion components. She relocated to Midland six months ago from Mojave, California, where half of the company remains.

Getting to this point wasn’t easy. It took Solanki plenty of hard work, perseverance and patience.

Though Solanki was always good at math and science when she was young, she often questioned herself, unsure of whether or not she could achieve her dream of becoming an engineer. Both of her parents supported her goals, but Solanki remembers the strong support of her mother most.

“My mom really made sure that I followed my dreams,” Solanki said. “She just always gave me the confidence to go for it. When I was a kid, I would always ask her, are you sure, ‘Mom, can I do it?’ And she’d say ‘yeah, you can do it, you got this.’ My dad as well but I remember my mom the most. And they both financially supported me throughout college, so I owe a lot to them.”

“Parents, man,” Solanki said with a nod and a smile. “They do a lot.”

Solanki ended up getting an undergraduate degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach.

She interned for various companies, including United Airlines, before coming to XCOR, but the work was not hands-on enough for her. She found herself mostly working on a computer, but she knew that what she really wanted was to build things with her own hands.

“The perks were amazing (at United Airlines), you got to fly for free!” Solanki said, laughing. “And I learned a lot from that in regards to organization and maintenance work, but I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I liked that I got to do a lot of computer work and get that background, but I knew that I needed to get more technical. I didn’t want to do maintenance because that’s not really the fun design, the creative stuff you get to bring to the table. So it was a great experience, but I knew I still had to keep going.”

What immediately drew Solanki to XCOR was a single line at the very bottom of their engineer job description. It read: Must be able to carry 50 pounds and climb a ladder.

“That’s when I knew, I was like yes, I want that,” Solanki said. “Because if it’s an engineering post and they have something like that then you know you’re gonna get hands-on experience. I hadn’t seen any other company like that.”

Solanki got a call from XCOR’s Human Resources with a job offer. She accepted and packed her bags for Mojave, where she would start as a propulsion engineer.

“If I went to Boeing or Lockheed Martin, I don’t think I would have had this opportunity to experience all these different areas of engineering,” Solanki said. “(At XCOR) I’ve gotten to do a little bit of electrical engineering, test engineering, mechanical engineering, design engineering, I’ve learned thermodynamics in depth -- all these awesome things. If I were at a bigger company I think I would be focused on one thing as opposed to getting this awesome variety I have now. So I’m really thankful I got to work my way up here.”

XCOR has a staff of 63 employees, mostly engineers. Solanki is one of only three female engineers there. The fact that the engineering field is still overwhelmingly male-dominated has never bothered Solanki. If anything, her biggest obstacle has been herself. Her recent promotion to lead hydrogen test engineer has been the most recent event to bring up old doubts she’d had as a kid.

“I manage a test stand (a trailer on which engine tests are conducted) and that’s been kind of overwhelming at times, but every day I’m growing a little bit more confident that I can do it and that I deserve it,” Solanki said. “So that’s kind of a growing experience I’ve been having the last six months.”

Another challenge? Adjusting to Midland.

“I just recently found out there’s a tea shop here and they’re opening up Potbelly (Sandwich Shop) -- I love Potbelly!” Solanki said. “I feel like Midland is growing and it’ll be pretty awesome soon but right now…it takes me a while to adjust. It took me a while to adjust to Mojave so I just need to give Midland more time. But this is the prime time in my life that I can afford to take this sort of adventure -- risk.”

For Solanki, the most difficult challenge has rarely been rocket science itself.

“I used to think that this was something I could never do,” Solanki said. “You know how growing up people go, ‘oh it’s not rocket science, why don’t you get it?’ And this is rocket science. But once you sit down and just really read it, take it one step at a time, it’s not as complicated as people think. If you go in with an open mind, I feel like almost anyone with the desire to learn this stuff can pick it up.”

Maybe not anyone, but what Solanki’s learned from her work doesn’t pertain only to science, but rather holds wisdom for any path in life.

“The equations get overwhelming, but when you first look at anything, like an abstract painting or something, it’s gonna be overwhelming,” Solanki said. “Then once you start looking at it a little more closely you’ll start seeing what that art piece is telling you. It’s kinda like that. You see this page full of formulas, but take a deep breath, it’s fine, and just take it one step at a time.”